CALVIN COOLIDGE TAKES THE PRESIDENTIAL OATH OF OFFICE- AUGUST 3, 1924

We could use a man like Calvin Coolidge today in the White House. His nickname was Silent Cal. The current trash talking POTUS probably says more in a week than Coolidge did in his presidency.

On this date-August 3, 1924 Vice President Calvin Coolidge was in Vermont visiting his family. They didn’t have a telephone or electricity. On August 2nd- President Warren Harding had unexpectedly died in San Francisco. Coolidge received word from a messenger that Harding had died. Coolidge got dressed said a prayer and went downstairs to face the reporters who had gathered. Coolidge’s father who was a notary public and a justice of the peace administered the presidential oath of office in the family parlor by the light of a kerosene lamp at 2:47 am. What did the new president do? He went back to bed.

President Coolidge said something that the current POTUS should take as advice but of course he wouldn’t-” The words of a President have an enormous weight, and ought not to be used indiscriminately.”